After six intensive months at the Shanghai office of swissnex, I’m about to leave the People’s Republic of China and head back to Switzerland. With me, I take a full bag of impressions about this country and its wonderful people.

I had the chance to visit Shanghai during the exciting time where the country’s enormous growth during the recent past lets it become the world’s largest economy. The wind of change can be felt on every corner of this very lively and ever busy metropolis. New buildings are pulled up at high speed, tonight’s dinner restaurant might be replaced by tomorrow.

The variety of encounters with the Chinese population taught me a lot about the way of life over here, about the differences to Switzerland, but also about many similarities.

Six months are not enough to fully understand this country and its people, but it is certainly enough to make me never forget this unique experience and the many friends I made in Shanghai.

During my time here, I worked on several swissnex China projects, represented the University of Zurich UZH on many events and supported the local UZH-Alumni chapter. Thanks to the broad field in which swissnex is engaged, I had the possibility to see and learn about many different aspects of the Sino-Swiss relationships as well as about China in general.

My sincerest thanks go out to all the people who made this internship possible, especially Pascal Marmier and Isabel Götz from swissnex China and Xenia Goslicka and Yasmine Inauen from the International Relations Office of the University of Zurich UZH.